ZOTZ - Bernard Green - "Don't Pull That Finger" (1962)

Oops!! We're going to Dead-i-cate this week to the films of William Castle! William Castle was born on April 24, 1914, in New York, and he died May 31, 1977, in Los Angeles, and since we're right in between those two dates, it seems like a good gimmicky time to pay a little tribute to one of the world's greatest flim-flam men since P.T. Barnum!! I'll never forget the first time I was introduced to William Castle, he told me to sit down!! It must have been around 1961 when Tabonga and I went to see "Mr. Sardonicus" at the Sierra Theatre, just like a lot of other weekends, Mom had give me a bright shiny quarter, 20 cents to get into the movies, and 5 cents for a pack of Neccos! We had received our "Mr. Sardonicus Punishment Polls" and at the end of the movie William Castle comes out, and asks the audience for a thumbs up or thumbs down. I was the kid in the back of the theatre jumping up and down that Mr. Castle resoundly told to "Sit Down!" Needless to say, since that day, I've always been taken with his gimmicks. I've still got that "Punishment Poll" around here someplace, now if I could just remember where!

So instead of A to Z, we'll do it Dungeon style, Z to 13 starting with tonight's feature from 1962, "ZOTZ!!" William Castle would fit in real good around here because he was a hoaxter and a jokester! In this particular case, he chose comedian Tom Poston for the lead as Prof. Jonathan Jones in this film! Tom Poston was an incredible talent who could been seen on the late 50's TV show, "The Steve Allen Show." Tom was a regular who did a number of skits in the mighty triumvirate that included himself, Louis Nye, and Don (Barney)Knotts! A trio to be reckoned with, without a doubt!!!

Throw in the voice of Mr. Magoo himself, Jim (Mr. Howell) Backus as the conniving Prof. Horatio Kellgore into the mix, and see what you get!!

The Professor tries out his new found powers on some toy boats in the bath tub! The composer for the music in "Zotz" was Mr. Bernard Green, a man with a fun style that worked well for a movie like this. Bernard also wrote the music for the hard to find, "Brass Bottle" and for the 1966 cartoon TV series "Cool McCool!"

It's an innocent, but also very sexy little tale! You might remember Jimmy Hawkins, here as Jimmy Kellgore, for his 80 TV episodes as Tagg Oakley, Annie's brother, or neighbor Scotty from 20 episodes of the Donna Reed show, among many other things!

And don't forget the whole scene with Julia Meade as Prof. Virginia Fenster running around in a rain storm naked as a jaybird. Julia Meade was the Vanna White of her time, having appeared weekly on The Ed Sullivan Show, all decked out and introducing the dream cars of the 50's!

Oh, you know William was going to throw in a plug for one of his other films, that's a given! Originally a dancer, the 5' 2" Zeme North as Cynthia Jones, was a familiar face on 60's TV, as Laura, Judy, Phoebe, Mildred, Claire, Deborah, Amanda, Eloise, Fessie, Rhoda, or Zee!!!

This is what your face looks like when a mouse runs up your leg!!

Jonathan had brought some mice to this highfalutin party so he could show off his powers, but Zotz wasn't working because he didn't have the magic coin with him!

All Hell busts loose, and pandemonium sets in as the mice get into everything!

If you ever watched 60's TV, then James Millhollin as Dr. R.A. Kroner is a face you have probably seen a millhollin times, but never put a name to!

Some things never change, here's what the big brass was really doing when they were supposed to be making upper echelon decisions about the fate of the world! Handicaps are more important! The ever so recognizable Fred Clark as General Bullivar, plays the perfect military buffoon!

As Tom Poston leaves the General's off, he spots his pal from The Steve Allen Show, Louis Nye in the waiting room with the line "Don't I know you?"

The normally health concious Professor, switches from his routine sauerkraut juice to vodka with predictable results!

So what did you expect? You drink vodka, and the next thing you know, the Russians take over! Now here's an extra-special credit, the Khruschev like character was played by master composer and Dungeon Hall Of Famer, Albert Glasser, the man who composed the music for all the Great B.I.G. films like "The Cyclops," "The Amazing Colossal Man" and "Earth Vs The Spider" etc, in one of his rare acting roles!!!

Here's still yet another Dungeon favorite, he who was born on X-Mas day back in 1907, Ex-Wrassler, Big Mike Mazurki as Russian henchman Igor! In this scene Igor holds the girls hostage while the bad guys try to get The Professor to turn over the secret of the Zotz power!

The professor puts the Zotz on the bullet leaving this gun, and is able to do the same thing to stop this otherwise crushing blow from Igor! If you don't know how the rest of the story goes, then you need to get yourself a copy of this film right away!

Tabonga will have a unique William Castle outing for you on Wednesday, and I'll be back on Friday to wrap up our tribute to the wild man of the week, William Schloss, a name he literally translated to get his much better known handle, William Castle!

I SAW WHAT YOU DID - "I Know Who You Are" (1965)

Probably should have saved this flick for a Saturday Night Special, but planning things ain't really my forte! It works for a Wacky Wednesday just the same, because it looks like a 60's TV sitcom, it's mean and brutal, and has music that sounds like it came from a cartoon! What more could you want from a movie?

Tonight's feature film is called "I Saw What You Did," a William Castle film from 1964!  Here's a link to all of Bill's films we've covered so far, and a fine array of titles it is, and this one is right up there with the the best of the rest! Follow that link, and you can catch our take on "13 Ghosts," "The Tingler," "13 Frightened Girls," "Mr. Sardonicus," "House On Haunted Hill," "Straight-Jacket," "Macabre," "The Night Walker," and more.

Here are the main two little missies who start all the trouble! It was all innocent enough, just some silly phone pranks gone horribly bad! Besides this film, Andi was in four episodes of "Wild, Wild, West," and one episode of "Black Sheep Squadron" before hanging it up forever! Sarah went on to act in 105 episodes of "The Virginian," something called "Schoolgirls In Chains," and two Billy Jack movies! "I Saw What You Did" was both girls first appearance in film or TV!

Just in case you missed it, William Castle was responsible for an assortment of movies that affected movie makers everywhere! Gizmos, gadgets, and ghosts, Bill liked to use them all, and........He was really good at it! As far as I can tell, this is the only movie produced by William Castle that we haven't written about, except for his last movie in 1969, "Riot!" I obviously need to try and track a copy of that sucker down!

The parents are going out of town for the evening, and the babysitter has ironically called and said she couldn't make it, so they reluctantly agree to leave! Sharyl Locke is the little sister Tess! Sharyl only has a couple more acting credits, one being a character named Jenny McGillicuddy in a "Bonanza" episode! The parents are Leif (Invaders From Mars) Erickson and Patricia (Homicidal) Breslin!

Libby and Tess show their blonde friend Kit who has come to spending the evening how they like to make prank phone calls, but instead of calling a bar and asking them if they have mouse knuckles, their regular act when somebody answers the phone is to say "I know who you are, and I know what you did!" and then they usually just hang up, but not this night...........

The name the kids find in the phone book is Steve Marak played by John Ireland, but it's Steve's wife who answers the phone as she's packing her bags to leave! The girls don't do the title line, but just ask for Steve, who is in the shower! His wife decides to take things into her own hands, but fails miserably!

Steve ends up stabbing his wife viciously and throwing her through the glass shower door, and then his neighbor/lover shows up and it starts getting complicated William Castle style very quickly! That necklace is just too much!!

The kids have been on hold the whole time, but haven't really heard anything of importance! The dog is very well trained!

Probably not a good ideal to listen in on other people's phone calls unless you can run real fast! Joan Crawford got top billing just for her name, but this wasn't the end of the line for Joan, she went on to be in "Berserk," and "Trog!"

Libby's got her learner's permit, and it's only about 20 miles to the madman's house, so she gets all gussied up, and they head out on a road trip in the middle of the night to see what this guy looks like! (Stoopid Kids!)

You'd probably have to be at least in your 50's to remember when it was commonplace to have your car registration wrapped around the column of the steering wheel for easy access in case you got stopped!

Here's a good shot of Joan Crawford, not exactly smiling, but at least smirking!

I had so many good shots I wanted to show you, but I just couldn't resist going with these three peeper scenes instead, because they just kind of say it all!

John Ireland puts in a very credible performance as a murderous madman! I laughed out loud when he finally tracks down the kids via the car registration with full intent to kill them and after hearing Libby's innocent explanation, he tells her, "I should really tell your parents about this," and she responds that he doesn't know what a mess she would be in, if they found out! (Without realizing how huge of a mess she is already in!)

I do love this simple shot!

Leave it to Bill to have an end with a double meaning!

This has got to be one of the strangest posters I've ever seen!

All through the 40's and most of the 50's William Castle directed mostly western movies, but it was in 1958 that he hit his stride as Producer/Director with "Macabre," and a string of cool movies that will never be duplicated! If there's not a shrine to this man somewhere, there sure should be!

STRAIT-JACKET - Van Alexander - "Lucy Harbin Took An Axe..." (1964)

Well, by the fate of the magpies, it's a Bloch to Bloch weekend, because just like last night's "Asylum," tonight's feature was also penned by Robert Bloch! It's called "Strait-Jacket,"and it is a pretty straight ahead, and down to earth scary flick, perfectly suited to this time of year!

Produced and directed by Dungeon All-Star, William Castle, "Strait-Jacket" jumps right out of the box and doesn't stop until the ride is over, and again, it's William Castle, so it's not just your average Rollie Coaster! This sumbitch has broken tracks, and hairpin curves aplenty!

Yep, believe it or don't, it's Lee "The Six Million Dollar Man" Majors in his first on screen appearance as bad boy Frank Harbin, the husband of a much older woman, whose wife is out of town! On the other hand, Stella Fulton, was played by Patricia Crest in what would amount to be her last role ever, maybe what's about to happen got to her!

Frank takes Stella back to his house, and makes passionate drunken monkey love to her with the bedroom door open, just knowing his little girl Carol is fast asleep!

It just so happens that Frank's wife Lucy Harbin got home earlier than was originally anticipated or planned! That first step sets the scene!!

Lucy Harbin was portrayed by the obsessively amazing Joan Crawford, who it is said, personally answered all her own fan mail, but obviously, by looking at this shot, not the kind of gal you want to go out on!! "Strait-Jacket" was sandwiched like a piece of head cheese in between "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?" and "Hush...Hush, Sweet Charlotte." Joan was on a roll!!

You get the idea! If this movie seems a bit pseudo psycho to you, it might be because master horror author Robert Bloch, among his other achievements was also responsible for writing that very famous novel, "PSYCHO!"

After 20 years in The Nuthouse, Lucy Harbin is free to roam again. Welcome Home, Mother! Lucy Harbin's grown daughter was played by Diane Baker, who is still working today!

Carving meat in front of a reformed axe murderess is just downright mean!!

I thought it was probably William Castle trying to make an extra buck, but in reality, Joan Crawford was the one who insisted upon the Pepsi product placement! Joan was the widow to a Mr. Alfred Steele, who just happened to be the CEO of the Pepsi Corporation, and Joan was on the board of directors!

Look Mom, I saved these annoying jangly bracelets you love to wear so much, that you can hear rattling around for the whole rest of the movie!

Carol has decided to take her Mom to town to get a makeover, and it looks like The Harbins have the only Fiat in town! I know how that feels, my folks used to have an Opel when everybody else was driving Buicks and Oldsmobiles!

With one of them new style wigs, and a new outfit, here she is, the new old Lucy Harbin!!! Joan Crawford actually started her entertainment career as a dancer before running off to California to seek fame and fortune as an actress!

Mom is doing pretty good, really, considering the circumstances, and Carol is feeling pretty smitten with herself!!

But all is still not well, especially when the night mares and stallions start to stampede through your brain!

The killer music for "Strait-Jacket" was composed by Van Alexander!! Later in his career, Van seemed to have a penchant for composing for TV shows about chicks, including "The Donna Reed Show," "The Farmer's Daughter," "Hazel," "Bewitched," and "I Dream Of Jeannie!"

Lucy gets kind of mean spirited when she drinks, maybe you should have left well enough alone, Carol!! What the Hell were you thinking, anyway??

Ever since Lucy was released there have been a series of brutal killings, imagine that!! This particular one included a man for all time, World War II vet George Kennedy, as the handyman Leo Krause!! George is still active and has work in production right now!

"Did somebody fart?"

William Castle paid attention to every detail, and always came up with some kind of stunt, so no matter what, his movies would always be something you would remember, and it worked!!!! "Strait-Jacket" was released on DVD as a double feature with another Castle chiller classic "Homicidal" and is also available on Netflix! What a deal!!